


3. Delirium

by orphan_account



Series: Whumptober 2019 [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Fever, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker is a Mess, Precious Peter Parker, Sick Peter, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Whumptober 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-04
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2020-11-23 03:36:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20885477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Peter gets sick and refuses to accept the limitations that come with that fact.





	3. Delirium

Peter Parker was nothing if not determined. If he wanted to stay up all night to ace a test, he would. If he wanted to fight the Vulture in a crappy, homemade suit, no one could possibly stop him. If he wanted to go around pretending he wasn’t sick despite feeling like he was about to cough up his entire digestive tract, well, that might be a problem. Unfortunately, Peter was far too sick to see that and proceeded on with his plan anyway.

School worked itself out well enough, mostly because Ned was a great friend and willing to take the time more or less drag Peter to every class. They didn’t have any tests, labs, or anything like that. All he had to do was not fall asleep. In truth, he couldn’t say with one hundred percent certainty that he never took a quick power nap in the middle of class, but he had no memory of his teachers yelling at him, so he figured he was fine.

It wasn’t until after school that things got complicated. “Peter, you didn’t tell me this was a lab day,” Ned said. Sure enough, Peter could see Happy waiting impatiently right in front of the school.

“It’s… It’s fine… I’m just gonna go ov… over…” Peter weakly gestured over to the car.

Ned grabbed Peter’s arm tighter when he tried to pull away. “You’re gonna blow up his lab or something that then you’ll die or he would let you in anymore and you don’t want that. I’ll tell him what’s going on. You just stay here.” He let go and walked over to the Happy. The man did not look pleased by this new development. “Hey, Peter’s-”

“Hi, Happy,” Peter said, slipping into the back seat.

“Oh, ummm.” Ned knew he should have seen this coming. “Just… Take care of him. Don’t use anything he does today against him and… Bye.” He took off.

Happy rolled his eyes before getting in. “You’ve got really weird friends, Peter.”

“Yeah…” He said, not really sure what he was responding to. He pulled out his phone. “Hey, wanna listen to K-Pop?” Happy immediately put up the divider. Peter smiled at himself for his genius plan (purposefully ignoring the fact that it took him all day to come up with it). He set his alarm for about half an hour later and fell asleep.

* * *

Unlike every other time Peter took a power nap, he actually woke up feeling better than he did before falling asleep. He still felt awful, but there was no real avoiding that. He also had a few minutes before they made it to the tower. He took that time to make it look like he wasn’t about to pass out at any moment.

As soon as they parked, Peter got out before Happy could even unbuckle, said a quick thank you, and went up to the lab. With any luck, Mr. Stark would just let him make webbing and leave him alone. 

“Hey, Pete,” Mr. Stark said when he walked in. He was doing god knows what with his Iron Man suit and didn’t even look up. “You can do whatever you want right now. I’m kinda in the middle of something.” Not wanting to test his newfound luck, Peter went straight over to his section of his lab. 

Making webbing couldn’t be too hard in his condition. He could probably do it in his sleep. About thirty minutes later, he felt like he might actually have to do just that. The world was spinning. He’d barely been able to make anything and he highly doubted any of it could hold his weight. His body felt like it was on fire while in a walk-in freezer  _ Why can’t I hear Mr. Stark working anymore? Did I go deaf? _ He banged his fist against the table to test his theory.  _ Nope, I could hear that. Thank God. _

“You okay, Pete?” Mr. Stark said from across the room. Or right next to him. Or from the next room over. Peter couldn’t tell anymore.

“I’m… I’m gonna… It’s…”

“Boss,” Friday cut in, “He has a fever. I recommend having him lay down and-”

_ Oh, laying down sounds nice. _ The next thing Peter knew, he was on the ground with Mr. Stark kneeling next to him. “Oh, hey,” Peter said. “What are you doing here?”

“Okay, we need to get you to the couch.” Mr. Stark helped him stand up and slowly walked him over.

“I’m fine. I just.. I just need… What are we doing?”

“Alright. Down you go.” He layed Peter down on the couch. “Just stay here. I’m going to get you an ice pack or something. Friday, how the hell do-” He left the room and Peter couldn’t hear him anymore.  _ That’s weird. I can hear way better than this. Maybe my brain is just turning my hearing off.  _

“Hey brain! Knock it off!”

“That’s a mean thing to say to your brain. What’d it do to you?” Mr. Stark laid a blanket on him and handed him some Nyquil. “Take that.”

“Will it turn my ears back on?”

“Kid, you heard me just fine. Friday said you don’t have a concussion, so you can sleep. Just take the medicine.” Peter tried to take the little cup, but only managed to grab the man’s arm.

“Oh, I missed…”

He sighed. “Friday, chances of him remember any of this?”

“Minimal, but even if that were not the case, I still think-”

“Yeah, I know…” He sat by Peter’s head and helped lift him into a semi-sitting position. “Friday, if you show this to anyone, even Peter, I will switch you out for a different AI.”

“I am willing to take that risk.”

He rolled his eyes before guiding the cup into Peter’s hand and helping him drink. “Good. Now just-” Before he could even finish the sentence, Peter collapsed back onto his side with his head in Mr. Stark’s lap.

“Night, Ben…” He was asleep in seconds.

* * *

Happy walked into the lab to remind them it was time for Peter to go home, only to find the kid passed out on the couch. Tony was also on the couch , letting Peter use his leg as a pillow. He was on the phone. ”He can stay here until you’re shift is over. Hell, he can stay all night. You don’t need to worry about that.” 

“What happened?” Happy asked. Tony looked up and signaled for him to wait.

“Yeah… May, it’s fine… Just get back to work. I’m taking care of it… Alright, bye.” He hung up. “Hap, can you get him to his room here?”

“You want me to carry him?”

“Well, you can try to wake him up, but I don’t recommend it. He’s pretty out of it.”

“Fine. What happened, anyway?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s just sick. He do anything weird with you?”

Happy thought for a second. “He wanted to listen to K-Pop, whatever that is. His friend was also acting weird.”

“He probably knew Pete wasn’t feeling good.” Tony got up. “You take care of the kid. I’m gonna go see if I can make soup without burning the kitchen down.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is my mandatory SickFic. Every good Whumptober needs at least one.


End file.
